{"id":344917,"date":"2024-10-02T14:07:38","date_gmt":"2024-10-02T12:07:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=344917"},"modified":"2024-10-02T14:07:40","modified_gmt":"2024-10-02T12:07:40","slug":"wind-power-pollution-and-hypocrisy-in-new-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=344917","title":{"rendered":"Wind Power Pollution and Hypocrisy in New\u00a0England"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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From Science Matters <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By\u00a0Ron Clutz<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

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Emmett Hare reports in City Journal Wind Power Debacle in New England. <\/strong><\/a> Excerpts in italics with my bolds and added images.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A fractured turbine\u2019s blade in Nantucket is causing<\/strong><\/em>
ongoing problems and frustrating local residents.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In mid-July, a blade from an offshore wind turbine operating 15 miles southwest of Nantucket fractured.<\/strong> A large amount of fiberglass, foam, and plastic debris<\/strong> fell into the ocean and began washing up on the island\u2019s shores.<\/strong> The incident led to the closure of several beaches and a suspension of operations and construction for the massive Vineyard Wind project,<\/strong> a joint venture of Avangrid and foreign-owned Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners that has installed and operated ten of 62 planned turbines in the country\u2019s largest wind farm.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Environmental groups,<\/strong> realizing the potential political implications of the fractured blade, downplayed the episode.<\/strong> The National Wildlife Federation (NWF),<\/strong> which avidly supports offshore wind farms, insisted that the damage was minor. \u201cCompared to other energy disasters in the ocean like oil spills, this incident is fairly contained and easily cleaned up to prioritize the safety of marine life,\u201d said Amber Hewett, senior director of offshore wind energy for the NWF. The Sierra Club emphasized<\/a> <\/strong>that \u201cthe failure of a single turbine blade<\/strong> does not adversely impact the emergence of offshore wind as a critical solution for reducing dependence on fossil fuels and addressing the climate crisis.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether the incident is \u201ccontained\u201d remains in question.<\/strong> Debris<\/strong> from the broken turbine has been reported<\/strong> beyond Nantucket\u2014in Martha\u2019s Vineyard, Cape Cod, Rhode Island, and off the coast of Montauk, Long Island.<\/strong> The debris is breaking up into smaller pieces resembling shattered glass,<\/strong> with yet-unknown effects on Nantucket\u2019s marine habitat. Vineyard Wind cautioned that \u201c[m]embers of the public should avoid handling debris\u201d and promised to \u201cbag, track, and transport all debris to proper storage as soon as possible.\u201d It remains to be seen whether simple avoidance will suffice, especially given the possibility of debris entering the human food chain through area fish.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) Wind Technology Testing Center in Boston has taken delivery of a 107-meter wind turbine blade designed for GE Renewable Energy\u2019s Haliade-X offshore wind turbine.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While this event may be \u201cunusual and rare\u201d in an absolute sense, many wind farms have seen broken turbines, fires, and sea-floor damage<\/strong>. And Nantucket\u2019s situation is particularly dire, given that Vineyard Wind\u2019s turbines are by far the largest<\/strong> ever constructed in the United States: the blade that fragmented on July 13 was over 350 feet long and weighed 57 tons.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even when functioning as intended, wind farms can negatively affect the surrounding environment.<\/strong> Wildlife advocates have claimed that sonic and subsonic vibrations<\/strong> from the construction and operation of turbines disrupt the navigational senses of marine mammals like whales and dolphins and can cause beachings. Turbines are also responsible for the deaths of countless birds.<\/strong> Clammers and fishermen are <\/strong>wary<\/strong> of working in areas close to wind farms,<\/a> out of concern for equipment snags on buried power lines and risks to their vessels of navigating between the turbines in bad weather.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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French Fishermen Join U.S. Fishermen in Fighting Offshore Wind \u2013 IER<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Nantucket residents<\/strong> questioning the safety of wind turbines generally support alternative energy. Indeed, in an FAQ post on the town government\u2019s webpage<\/a>, officials made the point that allowing wind projects to avoid scrutiny might allow traditional fossil fuel producers to evade similar oversight<\/strong>: \u201cIf [the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management] guts the provisions of these longstanding federal laws protecting culturally and environmentally significant places to facilitate expedient green energy projects, fossil fuel developers will exploit the bad precedent to undercut regulation of harmful projects for decades to come.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nonetheless, the Nantucket residents have seen themselves branded as tools of the fossil-fuel industry<\/a> <\/strong>by well-financed lobbyists and promoters of richly subsidized wind power. They have also been subject to physical attacks.<\/strong> At a city council meeting in Newport, Rhode Island, a field director for Climate Jobs Rhode Island, David Booth<\/strong>, was charged<\/a> with simple assault and disorderly conduct after accosting a speaker and seizing a bag of turbine fragments that she had brought for her testimony.<\/strong> Booth allegedly appeared prominently in a photo on the campaign website of Rhode Island senator Sheldon Whitehouse, which was<\/a> subsequently removed<\/a> without comment.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Debris in the water from Vineyard turbine blade<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The\u00a0wind-power industry has seen some of its planned projects cancelled<\/strong>\u00a0in recent years due to swelling production costs and local opposition to the environmental and aesthetic impact of the colossal windmills. A report published by\u00a0Brown University\u2019s Climate and Development Lab<\/strong>\u00a0in early 2024\u00a0suggested<\/a>\u00a0that much of the opposition to offshore wind was rooted in \u201cmisinformation,\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0\u201c[c]onspiracy theories,\u201d and cherry-picked information supplied by \u201cright-wing think tanks.\u201d It\u00a0might prove beyond the powers of an academic paper to convince the residents of New England and coastal states<\/strong>\u00a0that the fiberglass and foam washing up on their beaches is nothing more than a conservative talking point.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Short Lives of Wind Turbines<\/a><\/blockquote>

At local meetings, Nantucket residents expressed concerns<\/strong> about officials\u2019 handling of the turbine breakage and the environmental hazards of enormous fiberglass blades tumbling into the sea. In the past, they have also cited the project\u2019s impact on marine wildlife and its visual impact<\/strong> on the town\u2019s scenic beaches. A CNN report describing this \u201cunusual and rare<\/a>\u201d event<\/strong> noted that the Coast Guard had retrieved a 300-foot piece of the shattered blade from local waters. The outlet reported that a spokesperson for GE Vernova, the wind-blade manufacturer, \u201ccouldn\u2019t provide officials with the precise number of times something similar has happened at other wind farms around the world.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n